


Loose Thread

by Syntaria



Category: The Vision of Escaflowne, tenku no escaflowne
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 13:30:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1942941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syntaria/pseuds/Syntaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a rainy day left to her own devices, Merle happens upon Hitomi's duffel bag</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loose Thread

The thing about Merle is that sometimes, she would get bored.

In a way, she was grateful for such times. It meant that the war was finally over and everybody in Fanelia, on Gaea, was going to be safe again. And it's not like she wasn't being kept busy, running after the children who were too young to help rebuild, handing out fresh fruit when the people needed a break. But she'd get a bit bored then, too, and end up swiping some of their tools for a while (never for long and never anything vital; a hammer when they were sawing wood, the saw when they were painting). Her boredom was even worse on the rainy days, where the only time spent on restoration was covering the lumber. Today was just such a day.

It was easy for her to get bored on these days. There were only so many times she could file her nails, only so long she could spend napping, and nowhere near as many people to bother as she had become accustomed to. She spent a lot of time poking her head around whatever restored parts of the castle were habitable, calling out for Lord Van or Hitomi, knowing they may want to be alone—but really, where was the fun in that? That wasn't much of an option today, though. Lord Van had run down to the center of the city to help oversee guard recruitment, stepping up in his role as King and military leader in place of Balgus and the other generals. 

So that pretty much left Hitomi to amuse her. The problem with this, though, was the fact that Hitomi was nowhere to be found. Merle had searched the castle top to bottom; the basement (still with the faint smell of smoke and charred earth), the kitchens (and the cook nearly smacked her with a spoon when she snatched a piece of piscus fruit), and every room, closet and niche she could find. She'd climbed on top of the roof and called out for the other girl, but there had been no response but for some of the birds taking flight.

Sitting on a window sill and staring out at the town below, Merle groaned. Hitomi was always good for a laugh, and without her, the times when Lord Van were gone were almost unbearable. Before the war, it had been different; Merle didn't really realize that he might never come back. And she knew, now, that he was in no real danger (but they had spent weeks running for their lives from fire, and she had watched, screaming his name, as he fought to avenge his people, to protect those he still had) but it was hard to forget. Hitomi made it just a little bit easier; she was a healthy distraction and a comrade, a friend. And she was hilarious to tease.

“So where the heck is she?!” Merle cried out to nobody in particular, tail swishing from side to side from a combination of boredom and irritation. 

There was no answer, but for the pitter-patter of the rain. It wasn't like she was really expecting one, but it would have been nice. She turned her back to the rain, snorting to herself, and slid off of the windowsill. Yawning, she stretched out her limbs, stiff from sitting for so long, and wondered what on Gaea she could do to pass the time until something interesting happened. 

That was when she spotted it. The purple and blue fabric poking out from under the bed. Slowly, a devious smile spread across her face. 

Hitomi never let her go near that bag, not since she had taken the...what had she called it? A pager? Well, whatever it was, it had gotten her banned from perusing through Hitomi's things. Not that it stopped her, or she even liked to do it that often. For being so strange, Hitomi's belongings were actually fairly boring. Some odd tasting snacks and a couple pretty knickknacks were really all that Merle had found so interesting, but she was always chased off before looking through it all. Now, she had all the time in the world and nobody to stop her. 

A new spring in her step, Merle got on all fours and bounded over to the bed. Flopping herself unceremoniously on top of the mattress, she leaned over the edge and pulled at the bag's strap. As she pulled it out, though, she realized the flaw in her plan. Because the bag wasn't closed; and as she pulled it up, the weight of everything inside slipped to one side. As a result...

“Oh crap!” Merle cried out as everything that had been in the bag clattered to the floor.

“Well that's just great,” she muttered to herself, putting the now empty bag on the bed. Her ears perked up in, though, as she heard the distinct sound of crunching gravel drifting up through the window, just audible over the rain. She jumped off the bed and leaped back to the window, poking her head out cautiously for the rain. To her pleasure, she saw Lord Van's favored horse trotting to the castle doors; to her horror, she saw that Hitomi was indeed with him. She turned her head back toward the mess she had made of her belongings and gulped to herself.

Frantically, she began to pick up everything that had spilled out. Most of it was simple enough; strange tubes filled with smelly liquids of varying colour, that disgusting stick of what she thought might have been candy (and Hitomi had shouted a fair bit about “lip gloss not meant to be eaten”, as if Merle hadn't clearly figured that out for herself thanks); those she flung in without a thought. It was the clothes that gave her pause. She held a skirt from the outfit that Hitomi usually wore (she called it a school uniform?) and narrowed her eyes. There was a thread sticking out off of the bottom; one of Merle's pet peeves. She pulled at the thread quickly, not wanting to waste more time.

The thread only got longer. 

Frowning, Merle pulled at it again, expecting it to come off. But it just kept getting longer. 

To her horror, Merle saw that there was the beginnings of a rip running up one of the pleats in Hitomi's skirt now. She tried to let go of the thread, but it had wound so long that it got caught on one of her nails. As she pulled her hand away, she winced as it snagged her nail painfully; but worse, there was a ripping noise from the skirt. Wide eyed, Merle shoved it into the duffel bag, afraid to really look, and hurriedly shoved everything else on top, too. Carefully, she shifted the bag to the ground and shoved it back under the bed with her foot.

There was still thread caught on her nail, and Merle worked on that with her teeth as she slipped out of Hitomi's room. She hurriedly made her way down to the front hall of the palace, sitting on the steps and allowing herself a moment to calm down. 

There was no way that Hitomi could possibly figure out it was her who ruined that skirt. Besides, it was a pretty weird skirt to begin with. Not like it was a huge loss, right?

Merle didn't have time to feel bad, though. Lord Van and Hitomi came through the large front doors a few seconds later, dripping wet from the rain. 

“Oh you two!” she cried out, startling them. Van smiled while Hitomi blinked, as Merle stood on the steps, hands on her hips. “First you leave me here all alone for the day, and now you come home soaking wet!” 

“It wasn't this bad when we left,” Hitomi protested good naturedly, as Van thanked one of the attendants who had just given him two towels. He handed one over to Hitomi, who took it gratefully, while rubbing his own hair dry. 

“How was your day, Merle?” he asked, muffled from the towel covering part of his face.

“Dull as rocks,” Merle responded, moving to give him a hand. She stopped, though, at the sound of Hitomi's voice.

“I'm going to go change,” she said, brushing her towel up and down her legs quickly, just enough to stop the immediate dripping on the halls. She took the stairs two at a time, the towel wrapped over her shoulders; “I'll stop by your study later, alright?” she called back.

“Alright,” Van called back, and Merle didn't even hear what he said after that, staring after Hitomi as she was. 

“I'm gonna go check on the laundry,” she spat out, bounding off after Hitomi, not even registering the confused look on Van's face or what he shouted after her. She was too busy heading down the hall, turning the corner that led to Hitomi's temporary room. Hitomi had already made it there and was closing the door behind her. Merle wanted to try and play it cool, but another part of her wanted to see what happened. To see if she got away with it, and if not, to see what she had screwed up in her haste. 

So she took a calming breath and walked down the hall; when she reached the door, she could hear Hitomi shuffling around inside. As casually as she could, she opened the door; Hitomi gave an indignant, “Hey!”, which she cheerfully ignored. Merle gave a double take, however, at the sight of her.

“Hitomi!” she cried out, as scandalized and amused as she could possibly force, “what's the matter with your skirt?!”

Hitomi looked down in dismay, turning in front of the mirror to look down at it. “There was a loose thread on it the other day. I guess it must have gotten caught on part of my CD player or something.” She sighed, and Merle did her best to look like this was a plausible reality. “I guess it's not a huge loss,” and Hitomi smiled, “I'm sure somebody could fix it. I'm not that good at it, but I could try, after all...” She looked down again and muttered, “But it looks like I'll be wearing my running shorts for a while.”

Merle nodded, turning around so Hitomi couldn't see her face, just barely able to contain her amused expression as she was. 

“Ya, I guess so,” and she smirked.


End file.
